The bird activist group Friends of the Feather (FoF) said that the water birds that have been at the farm for many years are rapidly losing their habitat. FoF claim they were banned from the premises and were thus unable to put up platforms for the birds to perch on.
Moreover, the George Herald's attention was drawn to the George Municipality's current activities that are, according to FoF, quite disruptive and scaring the birds away. A member of FoF this week revealed that he has put the wooden cut-out birds back up on the George Municipality's bus stop poles to highlight the plight of the birds.
"This time we put them up with bleeding hearts, since their breeding trees at the crocodile farm have been chopped down, and they are desperately nesting in the last few trees on the property. Thanks to the George Municipality, with all its green credentials, for allowing this natural wonder of a heronry in an urban setting to go to ruin." However, by Wednesday morning (27 August), just a few days later, the 'bleeding' wooden birds were all taken down. Ironically enough their white predecessors were left unhindered for about four months.
In a letter detailing the battle against the water birds' loss of habitat, a FoF member refers to the long history of trying to establish a heronry at the farm. "Five years after the custodians of the heronry were banned from the premises, the municipality moved onto the old farm with heavy equipment last year and during the breeding season dumped gravel and building material after they had compacted the soil."
The FoF member threatened to have video footage taken at the Old Crocodile Farm aired on a SABC nature programme. "We have enough film footage to shame them on any green programme," he added.
No response was received from the George Municipality at the time of going to press. The protest comes after many years of petitioning City Hall to turn the farm into a bird park and tourist attraction. The group ask: "Old Crocodile Farm - Quo Vadis?"
Click here for the full summary of events (according to Friends of the Feather) that transpired since 2007.
The former holding dams where the crocodiles were kept have become filled with putrid water.
ARTICLE: PAULINE LOURENS, GEORGE HERALD JOURNALIST
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